The St. Lawrence River was frozen solid, from Montreal past Quebec and down to its mouth, before Christmas. In January the middle Mississippi was solid with an ice bridge which one day broke and swept away three railroad bridges. The Hudson, from Troy to New York harbor, was solid by mid-February. Within a week after that even the Savannah River became impassable, and the port closed. Yet, for all that, by whatever desperate expedient possible, the people were being transported south, and were cared for in their new locations, in the best fashion that could be managed. * * * * * What formerly had been our tropic zone was thronged with new arrivals. Daily they poured in from the north. And from the far south, as well--in spite of government's pleadings and commands to the contrary; from Buenos Aires, Rio, Santiago, people were striving to get north, nearer the equator, fearful of this new heat and blazing daylight which was coming upon them. Nor was it only a disturbance of the world's normal temperatures. With the abnormal climate came other inevitable disturbances. From widely divergent localities, devastating windstorms were reported. A typhoon, wholly out of season, swept the China Sea. A hurricane in Central America. From Peru and Chile they told of heavy rains flooding the arid coast. Rain fell at Biskra with torrential rainstorms sweeping up and across the Sahara. I had been saying that father, near the end of February, went to Porto Rico. The two weeks previous to his arrival there were weeks of amazement growing daily into awe as Dan and Hulda were brought into closer contact with their beautiful, unearthly visitor. It came upon them gradually, the strangeness, weirdness of this girl so like themselves at first glance, yet obviously a being wholly different. They treated her as a visiting guest, though in reality she was a captive. Upon father's advice--for he guessed, at least partially, what the outcome was to be--the Cains were content to do nothing with Zetta save to have her live with them in seclusion; and to make her comfortable. That she was extremely intelligent, Dan saw at once. She evidently realized that they were wholly friendly. Whatever her purpose, living there with them seemed all she desired. She had her own room, next to Hulda's. She seemed to appreciate Hulda's efforts for her comfort. She ate with the family, making whimsical faces at the food which she obviously disliked at first. For the rest, she seemed content to sit in the living room, watching them, listening to them talk.